Contemporary garden design is focused intently on the transitional spaces between indoor and outdoor locations.

One of the best ways to have an outdoor space you can enjoy year-round is with a glass veranda, which provides cover and shelter for an outdoor dining area or even a winter-friendly garden.

The term veranda is Indian in origin, based on the Spanish word baranda (for railing) and builds on the importance of an indoor-outdoor transitional space on the Indian subcontinent, a region with intense heat, humidity and intense monsoon seasons.

It is important not only for physical comfort but also as a place of community and togetherness. These elements would inspire their adoption in Victorian-era houses outside of early exceptions such as The Vyne.

To this day, they have remained popular in homes with a suitable front or back entrance to install one.

However, the concept is far older than this and is believed to have originated in Ancient Persia. The Apadana Palace in the ancient city of Persepolis is believed to have featured an open veranda, described as unique amongst the palace buildings of the Persian Empire.

From here, the veranda transformed into the Ancient Greek portico, a columned porch or veranda that was a major design component of temples throughout Hellenic Greece.

When the Romans invaded and conquered Greece, they integrated a lot of their technology, their culture and their architecture into theirs, spreading it far and wide across their empire.

The first revival of the veranda came in part due to the Renaissance, which led to a revival of Roman and Greek artistic and architectural movements.

The Vyne, made in the 16th century, is the first adoption of this revived portico veranda style in England, but it would take until the Indian veranda for it to become a staple in English homes.